The present invention relates to a cigarette packet having a hinged lid.
In particular, the present invention relates to a cigarette packet of substantially rigid embodiment, typically comprising a container box having a predominating longitudinal axis, having a front panel, a rear panel and two side panels, disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis, and a bottom end panel. The container box includes a body which is openable by rotationally raising at its top end, a lid which is exclusively associated with the rear panel of the body of the container box, by a hinge. The lid is capable of movement in relation to the body between an open position, in which the top end of the container box body is open, and a closed position, in which the top end is concealed by a corresponding open bottom end of the lid. The packet further includes a frame element having a front section, wherein a first portion of the front section of the frame element is located internally of the container and disposed in contact with at least a part of the front panel of the container, and a second portion of the front section of the frame element projects from the open top end of the container. The second portion, and in particular the front section thereof, necessarily is or comes in direct contact with the hinged lid when the hinged lid is moved from or into the closed position with relation to the container box body.
Conventional cigarette packets of the type outlined above are fashioned normally from blanks, i.e. flat die-cuts of cardboard or similar material, of which the single thickness has been reduced further and further over time for obvious reasons of economy. Recently, such materials have become so thin that an assembled packet can no longer even be guaranteed to retain a stable shape in normal use. It has been found with packets of more recent manufacture, in particular, that the simple operation of opening or closing the packet by moving the lid can sometimes cause the front panel of the container, together with the front section of the frame element being arranged in the container such as to be in contact with at least a part of the front panel of the container, to buckle outwards permanently or at least for the time period when the container remains pressed at its side panels, so that difficulty is experienced when opening or closing the lid.
Furthermore, there is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,108 a rigid cigarette packet having a hinged lid, wherein the container of the packet is double-walled throughout its four sides and made from a one-piece blank having eight wall panels and a terminal glue flap. All of the eight panels being of approximately the same height, making a slight allowance for proper fitting of the inner structure within the outer one. The surface of the inner front panel is provided with a series of transverse debossed score lines arranged at determined intervals over nearly the complete longitudinal extent of the inner front panel for structural reinforcement of the same. The lid is connected with the rear panel of the container box body by a hinge, and is connected with the outer front and side panels of the container box body by perforated tear lines. In order to be able to open the package, the perforated tear lines have to be burst, by pressing, using one's finger, against the corresponding front and side panels of the closed lid for separating the lid in its closed position from the corresponding front and side panels of the container box body.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,108 does not refer to a packet having a reduced amount of material, in particular in view of the resulting complete thickness of the respective panels of the folded container, and in view of the number of panels necessary to form the container, and also in view of the longitudinal and transversal extents of the respective inner panels. In particular, this prior art document does not refer to a frame element having a reduced amount of material. There is also not disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,108 a packet in which the effective connection between the lid and the container box body is exclusively obtained by means of a hinge provided between the rear panel of the lid and the rear panel of the container box body. Finally, the above-cited document does not refer to a packet which is able to prevent effectively that the portion of the inner front panel which projects from the outer front panel of the container can buckle outwards and consequently hinder an easy and correct closing or opening of the hinged lid with relation to the container box body.
The general object of the present invention is to provide a packet having a frame element, wherein the packet is provided with a lid which is materially associated with the container only by means of a hinge between the rear panel of the lid and the rear panel of the container box body, and the packet with the frame element is fashioned from particularly thin sheet material, and the amount of material for the container and the frame element is possibly reduced, and the frame element is in contact with the open top end of the container, and the packet yet remains unaffected by the drawbacks in question.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a packet having a hinged lid and a frame element, and the frame element not being a component of a corresponding packet blank but a separate and independent element, wherein the second portion of the front panel of the frame element, i.e. the portion that projects from the open top end of the container box body, does not buckle outwards during normal use so as to prevent an easy and/or correct closing and opening of the hinged lid with relation to the container box body.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a packet having a hinged lid and a frame element, and the frame element not being a component of a corresponding packet blank but a separate and independent element, wherein the front panel of the container and the second portion of the front panel of the frame element, i.e. the portion that projects from the open top end of the container box body, does not buckle inwards during normal use so as to prevent a correct and concealed closing of the hinged lid with relates to the container box body, in particular with relation to the open top end of the front panel of the container and to the projecting portion of the front panel of the frame element.